Immediate Family

About Lyman Hall, signer of the "Declaration of Independence"

Lyman Hall (April 12, 1724 – October 19, 1790), physician, clergyman, and statesman, was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia. Hall County is named for him.

Hall graduated from Yale College in 1747 and studied theology with his uncle, Rev Samuel Hall (1695–1776; Yale 1716) in Cheshire, CT. In 1749, he was called to the pulpit of Stratfield Parish (now Bridgeport, CT). His pastorate was a stormy one: an outspoken group of parishioners opposed his ordination; in 1751, he was dismissed after charges against his moral character which, according to one biography, "were supported by proof and also by his own confession." He continued to preach for two more years, filling vacant pulpits, while he studied medicine and taught school.

In 1752, he married Abigail Burr of Fairfield, Connecticut, however, she died the following year. In 1757, he married again to Mary Osborne. He migrated to South Carolina and established himself as a physician at Dorchester, South Carolina, near Charleston, a community settled by Congregationalist migrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts decades earlier. When these settlers moved to the Midway District – now Liberty County – in Georgia, Hall accompanied them. He soon became one of the leading citizens of the newly founded town of Sunbury.

On the eve of the American Revolution, St. John's Parish, in which Sunbury was located, was a hotbed of radical sentiment in a predominantly loyalist colony. Though Georgia was not initially represented in the First Continental Congress, through Hall's influence, the parish was persuaded to send a delegate – Hall himself – to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Second Continental Congress. He was admitted to a seat in Congress in 1775, a seat that he held until 1780. He was one of the three Georgians to sign the Declaration of Independence.

In January 1779, Sunbury was burned by the British. Hall's family fled to the North, where they remained until the British evacuation in 1782. Hall then returned to Georgia, settling in Savannah. In January 1783, he was elected an early governor of the state – a position that he held for one year. While governor, Hall advocated the chartering of a state university, believing that education, particularly religious education, would result in a more virtuous citizenry. His efforts led to the chartering of the University of Georgia in 1785. At the expiration of his term as governor, he resumed his medical practice.

In 1790, Hall removed to a plantation in Burke County, Georgia, on the Carolina border, where he died on October 19 at the age of 66. Hall's widow, Mary Osborne, survived him, dying in November 1793. His one son, John, died shortly after and left no children of his own.

Lyman Hall is memorialized in Georgia where Hall County, Georgia bears his namesake; and in Connecticut, his native state, where the town of Wallingford honored him by naming a high school after its distinguished native son. Elementary schools in Liberty County, Georgia and in Hall County, Georgia are also named for him.

Signers Monument, a granite obelisk in front of the courthouse in Augusta, Georgia, memorializes Hall and the other two Georgians who signed the Declaration of Independence. His remains were re-interred there from his original grave on his plantation in Burke County.

Lyman Hall is portrayed in the 1969 Broadway musical 1776 and in the 1972 film of the same name by Jonathan Moore. As presented in the play and in the film, at a critical point in the struggle of John Adams to convince his fellow delegates to the Second Continental Congress to choose independence, Hall re-enters the chamber to change Georgia's vote. He says he has been thinking: "In trying to resolve my dilemma I remembered something I'd once read, 'that a representative owes the People not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion.' It was written by Edmund Burke, a member of the British Parliament." Hall then walks over to the tally board and changes Georgia's vote from "Nay" to "Yea."

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History of Wallingford, Conn. by Charles Henry Stanley Davis

Genealogies - Part 1, pg. 756, 766, 767

"Lyman Hall, son of John and Mary Street Hall, was graduated at Yale college in 1747, Representative in Congress from the state of Georgia, signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He died in 1791, he left no children, was Governor of the state of Georgia in 1790." -------------------- (WIKIPEDIA): Lyman Hall (April 12, 1724 - October 19, 1790), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia. Hall County is named for him.

EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY: Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on April 12, 1724, Lyman Hall was the son of John Hall and Mary Street. Hs paternal grandfather, Hon. John Hall (1670-1730), was a member of the Governor's Council and a Justice of the colony's supreme court. His maternal grandfather was Rev. Samuel Street (Harvard 1664), Wallingford's first pastor.

Hall graduated from Yale College in 1747 and studied theology with his uncle, Rev. Samuel Hall (1695-1776; Yale 1716) in Cheshire, CT. In 1749, he was called to the pulpit of Stratfield Parish (now Bridgeport, CT). His pastorate was a stormy one: an outspoken group of parishoners opposed his ordination; in 1751, he was dismissed after charges against his moral character which, according to one biography, "were supported by proof and also by his own confession." He continued to preach for two more years, filling vacant pulpits, while he studied medicine and taught school.

In 1752, he married Abigail Burr of Fairield, Connecticut, however, she died the following year. In 1757, he married again to Mary Osborne. He migrated to South Carolina and established himself as a physician at Dorchester, South Carolina, near Charleston, a community settled by Congregationalist migrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts decades earlier. When hese settlers moved to the Midway District -- now Liberty County -- in Georgia, Hall accompaniedthem. He soon became one of the leading citizens of the newly founded town of Sunbury.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: On the eve of the American Revolution, St. John's Parish, in which Sunbury was located, was a hotbed of radical sentiments, where the rest of the young colony was mostly loyalist on its sympathies. Though Georgia was not initially represented in the First Continental Congress, through Hall's influence, the parish was persuaded to send a delegate -- Hall himself -- to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Second Continental Congress. He was admitted to a seat in Congress in 1775, a seat that he held until 1780. He was one of the three Georgians to sign the Declaration of Independence.

In January 1779, Sunbury was burned by the British. Hall's family fled to the North, where they remained until the British evaculation in 1782. Hall then returned to Georgia, settling in Savannah. In January 1783, he was elected an early governor of the state - a position that he held for one year. While governor, Hall advocated the chartering of a state university, believing that education, particlarly religious education, would result in a more virtuous citizenry. His efforts led to the chartering of the University of Georgia in 1785. At the expiration of his term as governor, he resumed his medical practice.

DEATH AND LEGACY: In 1790, Hall removed to a plantation in Burke County, Georgia, on the Carolina border, where he died on October 19 at the age of 66. Hall's widow, Mary Osborn, survived him, dying in November 1793. His one son, John, died shortly after and left no children of his own.

Lyman Hall is memorialized in Georgia and in Connecticut, his native state, where the town of Wallingford honored him by naming a high school after its distinguished native son. There are also elementary schools named for him in Liberty County, Georgia, and in Hall County, Georgia, which is also named for him.

Signers Monument, a granite obelisk in front of the courthouse in Augusta,Georgia, memorializes Hall and the other two Georgians who signed the Declaration of Independence. His remains were re-interred there from his original grave on his plantation in Burke County -------------------- Signer of the Declaration of Independence. -------------------- HALL, Lyman, a Delegate from Georgia; born in Wallingford, New Haven County, Conn., April 12, 1724; was graduated from Yale College in 1747; studied theology for a short time and in 1749 began preaching; later studied medicine and commenced practice in Wallingford; moved to Dorchester, S.C., in 1752, and, a few years later, to the “Midway District,” Liberty County, Ga., where he continued the practice of his profession and also engaged in the cultivation of rice; member of the conventions of 1774 and 1775 held in Savannah; Member of the Continental Congress 1775-1777; a signer of the Declaration of Independence; upon the fall of Savannah in 1778 and the capture of Sunbury, when his property was despoiled, went north with his family; resumed residence in Savannah in 1782 and again practiced medicine; Governor of Georgia in 1783; judge of the inferior court of Chatham County, which office he resigned upon moving to Burke County; died in Burke County, Ga., October 19, 1790; interment on his plantation near Shell Bluff, Burke County, Ga.; reinterment in 1848 beneath the monument in front of the courthouse on Greene Street, Augusta, Ga. BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Descent Only 15 of the 56 signers have male descendants today. These Signers have no descendants: William Whipple, John Hancock, Samuel Huntington, James Smith, James Wilson, Caesar Rodney, George Wythe, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Joseph Hewes, Thomas Lynch, Jr. Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton. These Signers have no same surname (male) descendants: Josiah Bartlett, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, William Williams, William Floyd, Francis Lewis, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, George Taylor, George Ross, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, Thomas Jefferson, William Hooper and John Penn. These Signers have very doubtful same surname (male) descendants: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Oliver Wolcott, John Witherspoon, Abraham Clark, John Morton, Carter Braxton, Edward Rutledge. The remainder of the Signers is known to have same surname (male) descendants. (Talk about being blown away when you find out almost all of the signers are part of your family's history. You sit back shake your head and wonder am I dreaming. Then you double check in disbelief wondering how that could be. What does that mean for you and your.) =================================================================== Did Your Ancestor Sign the Declaration of Independence? By James Pylant And can you prove it? Kathy M. Cornwell's "Disspelling a Myth and Finding An Ancestor," in Seventeen Seventy-Six, Vol. 2, No. 2 (pp. 69-73), tells of a family tradition that her husband's ancestor, Jane Wilson Cornwell, was the daughter of James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. "Admittedly, there was plausibility for the claim, for descendants of all of Jane's children whom we could locate had heard the story, and firmly believed it. One relative knew it was true because his grandmother told him, and she was Jane's daughter." Her research did reveal her husband's ancestor was the daughter of James Wilson — only that he and the signer were not one and the same. Signer James Wilson, according to one source Cornwell found, had no living descendants. "Our search to prove or disprove it spanned several years," wrote Cornwell, "but at the end of the genealogical journey we found the real ancestor, another James Wilson, who turned out to be just as colorful and fascinating as the celebrated Wilson." Yet, some legends prove to be true. “I too had a family story that the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon was an ancestor," says librarian Beatrice M. Beck. "It took three years to document this story. But it was one hundred percent correct.”* The Rev. Frederick W. Pyne’s Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, a nine-volume series, was published by Picton Press. The author’s work incorporates data from the application files of the Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Frank W. Leach manuscript, and many other published references. In 1987, the LDS Reference Unit at the Family History Library, in Salt Lake City, compiled the "Founding Fathers Project." The project encompasses genealogical data on signers of the Declaration of Independence, signers of the Articles of Confederation (1778), and members of the American Constitutional Convention (1787). The Reference Unit's objective was to identify names of wives, children, and parents. This reference is available on microfilm loan at the various Family History Centers. The film number is 1592751, item 3. However, for more complete data on descendants (up to 1900 in some cases), refer to the following microfilms: 001751: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Josiah Bartlett, William Ellery, Elbridge Gerry,John Hancock, Stephen Hopkins, Samuel Huntington, Robert Treat Paine, Roger Sherman, Matthew Thornton, William Whipple, William Williams, and Oliver Wolcott. 001752: Abraham Clark, William Floyd, John Hart, Francis Lewis, Phillip Livingston, and Lewis Morris. 001753: George Clymer, Benjamin Francis Hopkinson, Robert Morris, John Morton, and John Witherspoon. 001754: Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase, Thomas McKean, William Paca, George Read, Caesar Rodney, George Ross, Benjamin Rush, Thomas Stone, George Taylor, and James Wilson. 001755: Carter Braxton, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson Jr., and George Wythe. 001756: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Joseph Hewes, Thomas Heyward Jr., William Hooper, Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, and George Walton * Beatrice M. Beck to James Pylant, 4 June 2001. http://www.genealogymagazine.com/didyouransig.html==============================================================
http://history.org/foundation/journal/Winter11/painting_magnify/

An upsurge in public interest in the Declaration of Independence occurred in the early nineteenth century. Among the various editions printed was one by Philadelphian William Woodruff, a journeyman engraver. Allegorical symbols of the new nation surround the text and signatures. The cursive signatures on the printing at the right indicate that it was one produced after Woodruff's initial 1819 printing.